Bitter Sweet Tears
by Tempted Sacrifice
Summary: Hermione loves Harry, who's in love in Ginny, or so she thinks. Rated T to be safe. One-shot, AU.


Hermione stood in the Astronomy Tower, staring at the ground beneath her. So many things had happened the last year and now it all came crashing down on her. She tasted something salty on her lips and was surprised to feel tears running down her cheeks but she didn't care to wipe them away.

"Hermione, are you okay?" A voice asked and Hermione turned around to see Harry's emerald green eyes staring at her, worry evident in his features.

"I…" Hermione didn't know what to say, so she flung her arms around Harry and hugged him as more tears rolled down her cheeks. Harry hugged her tightly and patted her on the head, and Hermione relaxed slightly, but when she thought of the night she started sobbing, burying her head in Harry's chest and gripping his shirt tightly in her hands.

"I can't believe it's all over. It feels weird that everything that has happened for the last seven years has come to an end. Of course I feel happy, but at the same time empty. I mean, now everyone is going to go their own separate ways and what if we fall apart?" She whispered, her voice muffled by his shirt.

"I promise you that we'll always be friends." Harry promised and Hermione shivered as he breathed against her skin.

_Friends, that's all we'll ever be. He'll marry Ginny and I'll be expected to marry Ron, although I don't even love him, and when I turn him down I'll be shunned out from the family. What a great future lies ahead of me._

Hermione looked up at Harry, who was looking at the sun rising over the battlefield over Hogwarts grounds.

"Do you think we'll ever forget the pain we'd have to endure?" Hermione asked, as she too watched the sun rise and paint the sky blood red, and Hermione couldn't think it could fit any better after this night, where much blood was shed.

"No, but I guess we'll learn to live with it." Harry said and Hermione saw all the pain, sorrow and anger in his eyes that he'd felt ever since he'd found out he was a wizard. Hermione wished she could do something to make it all better for him.

"Are you going to get your parents from Australia?" Harry asked after a few minutes of silence and Hermione shrugged her shoulders.

"There's still Death Eaters out there and I don't want for them to be killed, so I'll wait for a while before getting them back." Hermione said, although she knew that that was only part of the reason, since deep inside, she wasn't emotionally ready.

Hermione distanced herself from Harry a bit and leaned against the railing, looking out over all the dead bodies that hadn't been collected from the ground yet.

Hermione turned around to just to see the door to the tower close and she felt her heart ache as she thought of Harry. Surely he was going back to Ginny now, and they would live happily ever after, leaving her alone to remember the boy she loved, but who didn't love her back.

A few months later when the castle had been rebuilt Hermione decided to go back to take her NEWTs, while Ron and Harry would train to become Aurors.

Hermione felt lonely when she traveled to Hogwarts alone without the company of her two best friends. She fisted her hands as tears ran down her cheeks, and she angrily wiped them away.

Ever since the battle and Harry and Ginny's engagement it seemed that Hermione couldn't stop her tears, so she had avoided being with the happy couple as much as possible so she wouldn't break down in front of them.

That would surely raise suspicions.

Hermione looked out through the window at the green landscapes that flew by and soon the train arrived in Hogsmeade and Hermione walked out of the warm compartment and out to the cold and rainy weather outside.

She sat alone in the carriage to Hogwarts and during the Welcoming Feast, since none of her classmates from Gryffindor had come back. And she felt slightly depressed over not getting the Head Girl position, although she knew that she shouldn't get it, since this wasn't her real seventh year.

The months flew by and Hermione buried herself more and more in her school work, wanting to forget about her feelings for Harry and try and avoid the whispers that followed her everywhere.

She sometimes got company from Luna, who had decided to repeat her sixth year, since she didn't feel ready to take her NEWTs. They didn't talk much, but they were both fine with it, since they didn't need talking to fill the silence.

Soon it was time to take her NEWTs and Hermione studied night and day and mostly got something from the kitchen since she didn't feel that she had the time to go to the Great Hall. Many of the teachers were worried about her since she'd lost weight and looked pale all the time with dark circles around her eyes, but Hermione assured them that she was fine, and though they didn't look convinced they didn't ask her anymore questions.

Harry, Ron and Ginny occasionally sent her letters, but Hermione didn't tell them anything about Hogwarts or talked to them about anything. She just answered their questions and sent them away. When they asked, she said she had too much work to have time to sit down and write to them, and they seemed to accept the excuse. But the letters didn't come as often know, and Hermione felt both relieved and unhappy.

She wished for everything to go back to before sixth year, when she had first thought of Harry as more than a best friend, since she wanted their old, carefree friendship back.

When the NEWTs were finally over and the graduation was in a week Hermione wondered if she would go and restore her parents' memories. She really wanted for them to be there, so she asked Professor McGonagall, the Headmistress if she could go to Australia for a few days, and luckily she got the permission to go there.

At first she thought of taking someone with her, but decided against it, since she wanted to spend some time alone with her parents since they'd been apart for two years, and Hermione had missed them every day so much. She apparated to the Ministry in Australia and from there she took off to search for Wendell and Monica Wilkins.

She found them a few days later, and knocked on the door and when her father opened the door she felt tears of joy enter her eyes, but willed them not to fall.

"Who are you?" He asked kindly, and although Hermione had expected this, she couldn't help but feel her heart break.

"I'm Hermione Granger, and I would like to ask you a few questions." Hermione said, and her father let her in and Hermione entered the house and sat down in the living room, where her father had asked for her to wait.

While she was waiting she looked at the pictures and saw a little boy sit on her parents' laps in many of them, and wondered if they had gotten a child during the two years they were apart.

When both her mother and father entered the room with the little boy from the pictures Hermione couldn't help but feel a pang in her chest as she stared at what to her looked like the perfect little family.

_What if I don't fit in anymore?_

"I don't mean to scare you now, but you're not really Monica and Wendell Wilkins, since your real names are Jane and Harold Granger, and I'm your daughter." Hermione said, and when she finished her parents looked at her with confused expressions.

"How come we don't remember you?" Her mother asked and Hermione sighed. _I hope they don't freak out._

"I'm a witch, and I replaced all of your memories with new ones because of a war in the Wizarding World."

"What kind of girl are you, going to strangers and claiming you're a witch and we're your parents? Get out!" Her father said and Hermione looked at them with tears falling down her cheeks as her father pushed her out of their house, and their lives. When he closed the door in front of her face, she felt as if her heart had been carved out and all that was left was an empty hole.

Hermione quickly went to the hotel she had been staying in and packed all of her stuff before apparating back to Hogsmeade and made her way to the Three Broomsticks to get something to numb her pain with.

She sat down on a table in one of the dark corners and ordered a bottle of Fire Whisky, and ignored Madame Rosmerta's disapproving look.

When the bottle was placed on her table she stared at it for a few seconds before opening it and gulping some of it down and grimaced at the burning sensation in her throat.

She looked up when the door opened and her mouth opened in shock when she saw Harry walk in.

_What is he doing here?_

Hermione hoped that he wouldn't see her, since she didn't want to talk to anyone; she just wanted to drink her sorrows away, although in the back of her mind a voice kept telling her that it was wrong.

She drank some more Fire Whisky, but this time she welcomed the burning sensation and though it tasted fairly good.

"Mind if I sit here?" Someone asked and Hermione shook her head, not caring who it was, as long as he or she didn't bother her. She circled the tip of the bottle with her finger and sighed.

"Hermione?" Hermione looked up to see Harry sitting in front of her and she opened her mouth and closed it again, probably looking very much like a fish at the moment.

"What are you doing here?" He asked and Hermione shrugged her shoulders before taking another sip of the drink.

"Celebrating?" She asked, her voice a bit slurred. Harry stared at her suspiciously, but Hermione was too busy drinking to notice his stare.

"Hermione, I can tell something is wrong. Spit it out!" Harry ordered, and Hermione looked up at him with tears in her eyes. She stared at him for a few seconds before opening her mouth.

"I went to Australia to get my parents back, but they kicked me out, thinking I was some kind of lunatic, and they looked like the perfect little family with their new son and… And I feel heartbroken because I don't have any parents and I know that I'll forever live alone since no one would want anyone like me, and the guy I like is going to marry someone else." Hermione said and by the time she finished she was sobbing with Harry's arms around her.

"I'm sorry." Harry whispered and Hermione sobbed even harder.

"But I thought Ron liked you?" He asked after a few minutes and Hermione laughed humorlessly and a bitter smile entered her face.

"No, I don't like Ron, and haven't done since sixth year. Or well, yeah I still liked him in a way, but there was someone else who caught my eye, who I knew would never like me back. He's so brave, smart and the most caring person I've ever had the chance to meet."

"Who is he?" Harry asked and Hermione shook her head, refusing to tell him.

"I can't tell you, you would just freak out." Harry was quiet for a few minutes before he tensed and Hermione looked up to see a horrified expression on his face.

"Are you in love in Malfoy?" He asked, and Hermione had to laugh, before shaking her head and going back to her depressed state.

"Then who?"

"It's you dammit! I know that you'll never feel the same way or anything, but I love you Harry. I've known ever since the day Ron left us alone in the woods, and I realized I could never know when he would walk out of my life when we're married." Hermione took a deep breath before backing away from Harry and standing up. She put a galleon on the table before turning her head to Harry, who had a shocked expression on his face.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to say this to you." She said before running out of the room, and ran where her feet would take her. By the time she stopped she was panting and saw that she was standing on the hill by the Shrieking Shack and she fell to the ground, crying her heart out, deciding this would be the last time she would cry over Harry Potter, before she would move on with her life.

She heard footsteps behind her and turned around to see Harry standing there with red cheeks and breathing hardly and Hermione, who had sobered up by the run, felt ashamed of what she'd done.

"Harry, please forgive me for…" She didn't get the chance to finish the sentence because Harry's soft lips were pressing against her and Hermione sighed and tangled her fingers in his hair, loving every minute of it, but when Harry broke away, everything came crashing down and she backed away, shaking her head back and forth.

"Please, don't make this worse on me." She whispered as she continued to back away from Harry, who was walking towards her.

"Hermione, I love you too." Hermione froze in her tracks as she looked at him and when she didn't say anything he continued.

"I have loved you ever since fourth year when you helped me with the Tri-Wizard tournament and I realized how much you've helped me through the years, and when I saw you in the Black Lake I felt my heart freeze since you looked death, and the relief when I saw you breathing and alive I felt the relief flood in me. I only dated Ginny and Cho since I knew you liked Ron, and would never like me more than a brother." Hermione stared at him with big eyes, her mouth gaping as she listened to him.

"Do you really love me?"

"Yes"

"But what about Ginny? If you don't remember, you're engaged with her."

"That's why I came here today. I broke it off with Ginny, told her the truth. She took it fairly well, and we've decided to be just friends." Harry explained, and for the first time in a year, a real smile entered Hermione's face as she flung herself around Harry and kissed him hard.


End file.
